Outbreak
by Cueball
Summary: A wave of fear ran over Reno's body and his finger itched at the trigger. 'What's to stop me from killing you right now...' Zombies, Conspiracies and Survival, not you average TurkFic.
1. Bringing Down The Beast

Dull thuds echoed down the ally, a shadowed beast, with blood red eyes rushed down it, a blue suited man -- or more like black, considering how dark it was -- chased after it.

The man reached into his jacket, pulling out his Handgun. When he got a clear shot, he fired a round after the beast, then another, the thing cried out in pain as one struck home, but carried on regardless.

_Damn Hojo and his cursed Experiments... _Rude thought as he ran down yet another dark, damp, ally, he'd lost count after the first twenty seven, and this game of Cat and Mouse was beginning to bore him. _Run and shoot, run and shoot, so repetitive._

He noticed the light ahead of him and swore out loud, it was heading to a populated area, meaning possible Civilian casualties and Witnesses, it would be good Public Relation though. Tough Turk Takes down Foul beast. _You just had to think it didn't you Rude? _He thought as he reloaded his gun, he took hold of his lapel and spoke into the tiny radio. "Tseng. Target is heading into central Sector Three."

"Take it down Rude, Myself and Reno are too far, Elena's close though." The crystal clear voice of his leader spoke into his ear-piece.

"I can take it without the Rookie, Tseng." Rude replied, not wanting to work with the teams most inexperienced member.

"That maybe, but it will be good experience for her, no arguments." With that he released the lapel and looked ahead from behind his dark glasses, he rounded the corner to see bodies laid on the ground, various bite marks and scratches across them, the beast was up ahead, crouched over something, Rude approached cautiously, he looked at the shocked people that where scattered around, they seemed to be relieved that somebody was unaffected by it, weather they knew that he was a Turk or not could have been debated, perhaps it was just the gun that gave people hope, but there was one person in particular that caught his attention, it was a young, dark haired woman, barely in her late teens, she was crying out loud, an older man behind her was making an attempt to keep her quite, he stared for a second, and caught her frantic gaze.

"My Baby! Save my Baby!" She pleaded to him, he looked away and up to the beast, that was probably what the beast was examining, he gave a confident nod to her and reached into his jacket, putting the handgun away, he reached into the back of his jacket, pulling out a pair of semi-automatic Handguns.

Rude had never been one for speeches, being a guy that let his actions speak for him, he aimed at the creature and fired a couple shots into it's back, to get it's attention, it turned quickly, giving him a death glare, Rude moved his head to one side, a loud crack sounded out, he shifted his head to the other side and another one followed.

"Here boy." He challenged.

It was running before he realized, accepting the fight, the Taciturn Turk opened fire, the bullets causing little damage and only serving to piss it off more, he threw the guns as they clicked, telling him his bullets were all gone, and shifted into his bare-handed fighting stance and waited until it got close enough. The beast, now charging at full speed, took only seconds to get a few feet away from Rude, he threw his right fist into the ground with all his strength, it hurt like a bitch, but the result was enough, a shock wave bubbled under the pavement, cracking it in places as it rushed toward his opponent, at the speed that it moved, and the force of the concrete exploding under it's feet, it began to lose it's balance and a round house kick was enough to knock it to the floor in a crumpled heap.

As it crashed into the floor, Rude began sprinting toward where the beast was examining the child, as he got there he found the Baby unharmed, wrapped in a white towel, he picked it up gently and looked over to his now struggling-to-stand opponent.

_Wheres Reno when you need him? _Rude thought, he could use a distraction to get the child to safety, otherwise he'd have to hold it and fight, that would hamper his attacks, so that left him with Magic, much as he hated using Materia, it was his only choice, he held the Child in his tender right hand, held up his other hand to the beast, and clenched it shut on a small sphere.

"Firaga!" He called, a red glow surrounded Rude's body, and a bolt of fire shot out from his raised fist, the blast hit the Monster head on, knocking it back from the sheer force, but it was still left standing.

"Bolt!" A voice called from behind him, another blast hit the beast, and Rude glanced beside him, there stood the normally bumbling Rookie, looking like a stone cold killer, a true Turk, he felt proud at that and turned back to the beast, it was still standing, but obviously hurt, he kept watching, clenching the Firaga Materia tightly as he prepared to send another salvo, but was cut short, the skin all over it's body began to expand and spread, like a Hedgehog would when threatened.

"Elena! Get down!" Rude shouted with an unnaturally loud voice, at-least by Rude's standards. The blond watched as her bald companion, with the white package in his hands, dived behind a nearby car, she turned back to the beast, just in time to see it explode, thick needles flew in all directions... It was too late... She could have dived... Should have dived... But it was too late, the needles struck her body and she was knocked off her feet...

---

**One Week Later...**

---

"Hows she doing Tseng?" It was Reno that finally broke the silence. He'd only been here a few minutes, but the icy reception and the awkward silence was bothering him.

"They said that she'll be physically fine... She just won't wake up... The Specialists said that she's in some form of Coma..." His voice was dry, Tseng had taken the news of Elena's injury bad. He'd blamed himself for sending her to assist Rude. He'd blamed Rude for not protecting her. And He'd blamed Hojo for making the damn beast.

Rude had been suspended from duty, Elena had been in a Hospital bed for almost a week and Reno was trying to play the peacekeeping role.

"What's Hojo said about it all?" He was trying to change the subject now. It was probably a bad idea to bring up Elena in the first place.

"Apart from what he told us about that thing... Nothing... I've been told he's been trying to take Elena in as a test subject. We can't let that happen. Last time he used a Turk in his experiments... You've seen Valentine... I don't want that to happen to Elena... I'll fight tooth and nail if I have to..." Reno glanced to his boss. The Wutian had never shown this much emotion before. The red-head looked back to the bed in which Elena lay.

She was peaceful. Anybody would be with the amount of painkillers that they were pumping into her.

He remembered the look on her face when they found her. She was curled in the fetal position, some sort of spines hanging out of her body, that look of pain on her face... He grimaced at the thought of it... Tseng was right, she wasn't going to end up as another of Hojo's merciless experiments. She deserved better than that.

"Hnn... You like her don't you Tseng?" Reno asked, he knew the answer already. "More than you really should..."

"I should never have let her go on that mission." That confirmed it.

"She can handle herself... You playing adoring lover wouldn't stop her from being what she is... A Turk..." The red-headed man turned now, to face his friend. "I'm going to take a look around Hojo's lab, try and find out what he's not telling us..."

"Don't worry Tseng." Reno said as he reached the door. "She'll be fine."

----

Author's Note's: Hey guy's, hoped you like the story so far, it's gonna get better, but I needed to start it somewhere, believe it or not I've had this chapter done for around about a year now, I didn't really think it was ready until recently though, thats why it's up now.

The idea came after playing the Resident Evil series, I couldn't help but be reminded of Hojo and his experiments, lol, it was one of those things I couldn't leave until I wrote about it, so here we are.

Comments, critics, praise, it's all good, so review no matter what you think! It helps me improve. ;-)

While I'm here aswell I could use a Proof-reader, email me if your interested, it'd be a big help!


	2. A Little Less Conversation

Reno smiled to himself faintly as he left the room. A quick glance around saw nothing but the cameras mounted to the walls at either end of the corridor. The flame haired Turk began walking toward the stairs and once past the door's he released the breath he didn't realize he was holding. That was a... strange... conversation to say the least. Tseng wasn't acting himself and he was trying to hide it behind a mask of caring. Even so, Reno couldn't tell whether his Boss was being sincere or not...

Damn it...

This whole mission stank worse than the Midgar swamps on a sunny day. Tseng wasn't telling him something, either because he didn't know, or he had orders.

He sighed. It was a bad day in hell when your own boss didn't trust you, no, that wasn't quite right; Tseng was more like a brother after everything that had happened over the years.

"Two can play that game, yo." Reno muttered, pulling a thin file from his jackets sleeve. If he was going to get to the bottom of this, then he needed some idea on where to start.

----

Carol's Scrum and Grub, Suburbs of Sector Eight, 1230 hours, March 6th

----

"Rude, cut the shit ok? I need your help, yo." Reno warned his long time coworker who was sat across from him.

"And I've told you Reno, I can't. If Tseng saw me anywhere near Hojo's labs he'd have my head. I'm suspended remember?" The Bald man countered, taking a bite of the pancakes he'd been trying to eat before the redhead had come along.

"Rude, damn man, you can be so dense sometimes... Tseng's in on it, he's gotta be. I don't know why, but he's turning a blind eye to it." Rude paused with another fork full of dripping pancakes halfway to his mouth. Reno's eyes briefly met Rude's favorite shades.

"You have proof?" The tone was serious when the baritone voice spoke, and even the chocolate brown eyes had a no-joking look to them as the bald Turk removed his shades.

"What do you take me for pal, a rookie?" With that Reno removed a file from his blazer and held it out for Rude to inspect. He took it gingerly and flipped it open, glancing over the pages within.

"Reno, how is Elena's medical chart proof?" Rude glanced up at the redhead, waiting for a reply.

"I went to see Elena this morning, checking how she was doing and everything. Tseng was there. He told me that they couldn't find out what was wrong with her and that she was in a coma... It didn't seem right, Tseng wasn't acting himself and her chart was right there, so I took it."

"What's this part? Predicted Deterioration Rate?"

"I'm not sure, but my rule of thumb says that if something seems overly simple, then it generally is... They're not pumping her full of painkillers and antibiotics... It's Corvine, I looked it up... It's a coma-inducing drug and the amount they're giving her is enough to knock out a SOLDIER first class. They've found something in her blood as well, a kind of toxin, something that's making her change, it's too technical for me, but whatever it is, she got it off that thing you killed, more specifically, those spines that it fired... That means –"

"That chances are, whoever else got hit will have it too."

"Exactly. Maybe you're not so dense after all, yo." Reno was grinning as he spoke, but it quickly died as he went on. "Anyway, my point is: Tseng lied to me... And he'd only do that to keep something important from me, and that's why I think he's in on it. He was playing the adoring lover too; my guess is that it's a cover... He's protecting her, but not from Hojo. From us, I think."

"You may be right... But... Hnn, something's wrong with all this... Tseng would never sell us out..."

"That's what I thought too, but people change, Rude. I don't know his intentions, so let's consider him neutral for now."

"Ok."

"Now anyway, I'm going to check out Hojo's labs, see what I can find on this thing and maybe get some kind of antidote."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Well, I was going to ask you to carry on if I died, but I think I could take anything Hojo might have up there... So I want you to contact this man." Reno advised, as he pulled a photo from one of his pockets. "Carlos Mikhail, a SOLDIER first class, he was first on scene and handled the first aid and clean up crew."

"You want to find out who was there and how they're doing, right...?"

"Hole in one, yo. We need to know if anybody else has been infected by this thing and if it's done anything to them... We need to know what's going to happen to Elena when this things done fighting her Mako."

Reno sat backward slowly before speaking again. "Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this... I'll see you later pal, I gotta go see the doc."

Rude nodded to his longtime friend. "Good luck Reno." The bald man spoke as Reno walked out of the small cafe. After finishing his pancakes, the bald man did the same.

----

ShinRa Headquarters, SOLDIER Barracks, 1345 hours, March 6th

----

"A Turk, huh? Last time I saw one of your types, I was being recruited. I've learned a lot about you people over the years... So I can't help but wonder: What's a shady bastard like you doing in a place like this?" The speaker was a gruff looking SOLDIER, Scars littered his face, a particularly nasty one began at the corner of his mouth and up into his pitch black hair, from the shape of it, Rude could have sworn that it resembled a smile of sorts.

"I'm looking for a Private Mikhail." Rude stated in the voice he normally reserved for ordering people about, it was gonna be needed here if he was one to judge.

"Carlos? What d'you want with him?"

"Turk business..."

"Hn, good riddance I say... He'll be in the training room." Rude nodded at the SOLDIER and started to make his way to the room in question.

It wasn't long before he found it, he'd been through the barracks enough times to know the general layout, and it was a lot like the Turks floor, but sparser and more cramped up. And sure enough, the training room was no different, it was plain except for the various objects and tools the SOLDIERS used to train. One thing in particular caught his eye, a training mat towards the middle of the room, on it stood one Carlos Mikhail, he was dressed in a full suit of Bio-tec armor, it looked relatively new – Rude guessed this from the lack of damage it carried – it's blue scales were reflecting the light almost perfectly; it was a shame Scarlet never considered the fact that sunglasses cancelled out the effect...

"Carlos Mikhail?" Rude asked as he walked closer to the SOLDIER.

"Who wants to know?" The trooper asked in an accent that sounded something like he came from the Costa del sol, but with a Midgarian twist.

"You were first on the scene of the... incident, in Sector Three, right?" The bald man asked.

"Yeah, that's right. Wait a second... I recognize you... You're that Turk I found, well one of them... You come to thank me or something?" Carlos asked as he looked the Turk over.

Rude blinked slowly behind his shades. "I need you to come with me..." He said, although the word order wouldn't be too far off, he was deciding to ignore that comment for the moment.

"Why? Am I getting a medal?"

"No. I need your help..." Rude trailed off.

----

ShinRa Headquarters, Turks Lounge. 1402 hours, March 6th

----

The two ShinRa employees walked through the building in an uncomfortable silence. Carlos had heard of the sort of things that the Turk's were involved with and he wanted no part of it. However, the Turk beside him had come to get him personally i and /i technically speaking. Even a rookie Turk had authority over any SOLDIER, so Carlos couldn't very well say no.

Not long after they had left the barracks they'd entered an elevator, and the Turk had scanned his keycard. From there, they'd gotten off at a floor that the SOLDIER was sure didn't exist.

Floor fifty four B was apparently between fifty four and fifty five, and the Turk's had taken it over as their base of operations. Carlos had seen the building's blueprints, just out of general interest when he learned he was going to be stationed in Midgar. This floor wasn't on it.

After they'd departed the elevator, the Turk had led him though what looked like a relaxation area and into one of the office's that lined the wall. Once inside the bald Turk sat behind a desk and motioned for him to do the same.

"Before we begin, I'd like you to know that I don't like being called sir, so don't call me that, Ok?"

"So what should I call you then?"

"Rude."

"Ok then Rude, what's this all about?" Carlos asked as he took the pre-offered seat.

"I need you to know first that anything said in this office, stay's in this office, is that clear?"

"Crystal."

"The damage in Sector Three, do you know what caused it?"

"Only what I heard on TV, that creature I found, some sort of hairless dog thing, it mysteriously got into Midgar from the plains, somehow got onto the plate and into Central Sector Three, before the Turks stopped it... Seems a little over the top really."

"Really? I'll ask the spin doctors to tone it down next time..." Rude joked.

"What was that thing, really?"

"I'm not at liberty to disclose any information on the creature to people without clearance."

"Hnn."

"An autopsy on the creature has revealed it was carrying a disease in the spines that it used to attack. Anybody who has come into contact with these spines may now be carrying the disease. It's important that we find anybody who may have been injured at the scene and give them a vaccine." The Turk was leaning forward; his hands were positioned together, in a sort of temple shape as he spoke.

"And that's were I come in, right?" Carlos asked – he didn't like where this was going. "You want to know where all of the injured live so you can pay them a visit and give them this 'vaccine', right?" The sarcasm was evident in his voice and Rude had a hard time thinking of what to say to it.

"That's right."

"Hnn, my brother used to tell me ghost stories about you guys, and from the thing's I've heard, it wouldn't surprise me if they were right..."

"The Turk's job is not a subject we're allowed to discuss. Now tell me, do you know where they are or not?"

"I didn't take their addresses... But I did send them to the hospital, they would have had to have signed in, I'm sure you have your own way's of obtaining that sort of thing."

"Yes..."

"Is it Ok if I go now?" Mikhail couldn't wait to get out of this floor and back to the barracks.

"One second..." Rude said, as he fished his ringing PHS from his jacket. "Rude... the morgue? ... Why, what's happened? ... Understood, on my way..." The phone snapped shut and Rude was on his feet in the blink of an eye. "To answer your question. No, you can't go."

"Why, what's up?"

"I'm being sent to Sector Three's Maple street morgue... There's a situation, your going to be my backup, understood?" Rude asked, looking to the SOLDIER as he walked over to a cabinet, opened it, and retrieved a pair of what Carlos recognized as KReE 9mm semi-automatic handguns.

"Yes, sir." Carlos replied, and a sharp look from Rude made him remember not to call him sir. "Expecting hostiles?"

"I always expect hostility when somebody tells me the dead are walking."

----

Author's Note's: Hello again everybody, hoped you liked this update, the Zombies will be along soon I promise, within the next chapter or two, so just hold on 'till then lol.

Not really much to say about this one, it's abit of a plot filler really, but it was fun to write.

A little bit of news: I now have a Beta-Reader, congrats Mysterious Reviewer and thanks for all your help so far!

Next chapter should be up for maybe Monday or Tuesday, feel free to review in the mean time though, reviewers get a batch of Reno's Famous Cookies!


	3. Appoinment With A Madmen

**----**

**ShinRa Building, Executives Lounge, 1305 hours. March 6th**

----

Reno had a goal less than two floors away – it felt so close... But he had to be cautious about it. He knew how Hojo was when it came to security, there'd probably be something else in place as well as the Buildings Security Systems.

He sighed loudly; he hated the little fruit bag with a passion.

Reno couldn't take chances on this. He'd have to pay Reeve Tuesti a visit – the man that built Midgar was sure to know what Reno was in store for.

A quick walk up the fire escape to the Executive's Lounge and he was outside of Reeve's office.

"Reeve. You got a moment?" Knocking was not one of the Turks strong-points, and the way Reno's head was poking through the slightly open doorway reflected this point exactly, Reeve thought as he looked up from his latest piece of mechanical work.

"Reno of the Turks, to what do I owe this pleasure?" He asked sincerely, it was rare that one of the Turks other than Tseng came to see him in person.

Reno had been going over what to say to the Head of Urban Development on his way over. He hadn't thought of anything that could get him the lab's security blueprints without raising suspicion, so he'd decided on the truth, at least as close as he could go to it without mentioning Tseng.

"You remember the incident in Sector Three, right?" He started, the Executives eyes looked bewildered for a moment as they went over the possibilities of what Reno may be referring to.

"You mean the one that President ShinRa ordered me to deal with?" Reeve asked, deciding on the most recent event.

"Yeah, that's the one."

"What about it?"

"I've done a little digging and I found that Hojo's little pet was carrying something in its needles, some sort of toxin..." Reno explained, he looked to the floor for a second, thinking on how to word his next sentence, then settled his eyes on the other man. "Reeve, Elena got hit by it."

"Is that so? How do you know this?" Reeve's voice sounded skeptical for a moment, but he'd learned that the Turk's didn't tend to joke around with stuff like this.

"I stole her medical chart..." The Redhead pulled the file from his jacket again, flashing it at the Executive as proof. "Her condition's deteriorating by the hour, the only thing holding it back is the Mako in her blood and if that fails... She'll be a goner Reeve, and I can't sit back and take that. I need to get into Hojo's lab, find a cure... Or at least a way to slow it down..."

"And you're here for a way in, right? He said you would come... What you need is in this." Reeve said as he pulled a folder from his desk and placed it in-front of the Turk.

It was Reno's turn to look bewildered as he stared at the brown folder. "Who's he?" he asked with uncertainness.

"We all have our little secrets Reno. Believe me when I say, it's better if they stay a mystery to you."

He hated it when people kept him in the dark, but he guessed this was one of those times when he shouldn't argue. "Why would you help me?"

"Why would you come to me? You believe that I care about the citizens of Midgar, and you would be right, its in everyone's interest that this thing is stopped before it can start. You're my way of making sure that happens."

"That so? Hmm, alright then... I owe you one Reeve." And with that Reno grabbed the folder and walked out of the Executive's office.

Reeve counted to sixty before he lifted the handset of his desk phone and pressed speed-dial number two.

"It's me; he's got the file... No, I can't see it taking too long for him to find it, Reno is very resourceful... Okay, I'll keep an eye on him..." The handset was placed down with a steady hand and its owner looked to one of the office's dark corners, placed neatly there was an over stuffed toy Moogle with a small black cat placed neatly on-top.

"I was wondering when I'd get to use you." Reeve spoke lightly to the lifeless object.

**----**

**ShinRa Building, Turks Lounge, 1315 hours, March 6th**

**----**

Reno was practically running as he made his way to the Turks lounge and, more specifically, his office.

The file's contents resembled one of the numerous mission briefs he'd received over the years. It was uncanny, really, how similar it was.

Going over the contents revealed some information that the Turk considered almost too good to be true. Apparently, Hojo was scheduled to be performing an experiment on the second floor of his lab. The first floor would be totally absent, with the Doctor's Assistants providing help on the second floor.

And with Hojo present in the labs, the security protocols would be disabled.

Meaning Reno could just stroll in and take what he needed without worry.

Hnn, nothing was ever this easy and if he was honest, the Turk felt a little disappointed at the thought, he'd been looking forward to doing some sort of infiltration.

There wasn't time for all that though, and this file was like a godsend for the Turk.

Reno glanced at the clock on his wall, quarter past one.

The file said Hojo was going to perform the autopsy at one o' clock; he'd be finished within an hour.

"No time like the present..." Reno muttered to himself as he pulled his memory stick out of the computer on his desk, stood up, and walked out of his door.

**----**

**ShinRa Building, Hojo's Lab, 1322, March 6th**

**----**

The elevator Reno was in stopped with a suddenness that would have made the Turk jerk had he not been used to it. The door's slid open with a 'ping' and he stepped out.

The redhead replayed the blueprint for this floor over in his head as the elevator doors slid shut again. He looked around the small room he was in. Four doors lined one of the walls, and if he remembered right, the doctor's records were kept behind the third door.

Reno walked up to it, the number pad on the wall flashed to life, and the Turk keyed in three, seven, four, six, six, and six. The doors parted and Reno smiled to himself, amused at the fact that the mad scientist had such a knack for forgetting his passwords that the Doctor had changed them all to 'drhojo'.

The next room was simply designed; it was made for efficiency and not for looks. Cabinets lined the walls and the centre of the room and placed on a gap in the far corner was a computer. Reno couldn't help but wonder how many poor souls the doctor had experimented on over the years to ever need this amount of storage for the records.

It didn't matter though; he was here for Elena and nothing else. He walked to the computer and pressed the return key. The screen flashed to life.

'A directory system,' the file had said. It stored the location of each of the files as well as a computerized version of them, for quick and easy use.

Reno pushed his memory stick into a slot on the keyboard and waited for a confirmation message, and then began his search.

The system was overly simple. You basically typed in an experiment's code and the file would appear on-screen as well as the location of the hard copy.

Reno wasn't sure on the name or number of the Creature.

"Shit." He muttered to himself. He began typing anyway, deciding to use keywords from Elena's chart, hopefully something would come up.

"Predicted... Deterioration... Rate..." Reno sounded out as he typed, his finger tapping return as the results began to appear on-screen.

Seventy... One hundred... Three Hundred... There was more than he expected. A lot more. The counter had hit a thousand and it was still rising.

They were appearing in chronological order, newest ones first.

"Hmm..." He muttered. The thing had escaped a week ago now, so if he looked close to that date...

"Bingo." The file he opened was an email addressed to the president. Reno smiled,_ exactly what I-_... The Turk stopped himself as he scanned Hojo's notes.

No, that couldn't be right...

"Irreversible," He spoke, the word sounded like a death sentence for Elena. "Damn it." Reno cursed, he read over the file again.

"... Once a Human is infected by the T.a.S.R.s protein, the subject will become volatile and delusional."

"Flesh and internal organs will begin to deteriorate at a varying rate, the uniqueness of this virus and the lack of a cure means that the subject will die within a few hours of infection."

"Once the subject is deceased things start to get interesting. In my tests, I have found that the virus somehow keeps the body stable, although the internal organs will be badly damaged and the lack of oxygen will have killed most of the brains higher functions…"

"It is still able to move."

"The lack of these higher functions controlling it means that the subject will succumb to its basic needs, the things normal humans need to survive."

"Hunger would seem to be the main motivation, my tests have shown that the subject will literally do whatever it takes to obtain its next meal, attacking anything it might consider food. Much like the Ancients stories of flesh eating monsters."

"Zombies, I believe they are now referred to. Whatever you may like to call them though, whether this is the actual subject yearning to feed or whether it is a way of the virus to spread to other's is yet to be determined and for now the lack of a anti-virus means that this condition is irreversible." Reno breathed heavily again, he'd read it right the first time. And now a strange urge to find out more compelled the Redhead to continue.

"My initial findings indicate that the infected subject carries the virus in their saliva, urine, and blood. Contact with any of these contaminated substances carries with it a chance of becoming infected, and although the virus cannot pass through skin, contact with broken or damaged skin means that the possibility of catching it is almost assured. " The Turk couldn't help but think of the possibility of this thing spreading easily through the slums, or for that matter the City, after all, they were all boxed in five hundred or so feet in the air with only a few exits to the slums and fewer to the world outside.

"I've lost one of my assistants to a bite he received from a subject... I'm using him as a test subject now and my hopes that I might be able to change this virus into a way of keeping our SOLDIERS alive after death grows closer day by day, however. I have yet to test it on a subject with the power of Mako running threw their veins, I'm not sure what this might achieve, but Mr. President, I do wish you would reconsider this choice... Signed: Dr. Hojo..."

Reno slammed his hand down on the wall. "Fuck!"

"Yes indeed." A voice came from behind the Turk. Reno reacted, spinning to face the speaker and brandishing a handgun pointed in their direction.

"How do I stop it Hojo?!" Reno demanded, a feral look had made its way to the Turk's face as he stared into the face of Doctor Hojo.

"You Turks like interfering in my plans, don't you? I guess it must be part of the job..."

"Answer my question!" Reno pulled the hammer of the gun back. "I won't tell you again."

"My dear boy, as you've just read out, there is no cure, there is no way to stop it. There just isn't."

"You're lying!"

"I can assure you, I'm not."

"Why then?! Why would you do this?"

"It's all in the interest of science. Imagine it, an army of indestructible SOLDIERS at my disposal, I'd rule this godforsaken world, and if the destruction of the Turks comes with it… then so be it!"

"And you think the president's just gonna sit back and let you take over? Think again, there's no way he'd let that stand!"

"You really think he could stop me? No... ShinRa's a pathetic old man, and with the death of the Turks, there'll be nothing standing in my way!" Hojo was almost foaming at the mouth by this point, his shoulders were shaking and a small laugh escaped his lips. "As soon as your friend succumbs to the virus, she'll take care of that good-for-nothing boss of yours and then there'll just be that partner of yours left after I take care of you, of course. My experiments at the morgue will deal with him..." Hojo seemed to be in a full out chuckle by this point. "The Turks will die an eternal death and the president will approve my research. When it's all set in motion and I have no further use for that bubbling oaf, I'll feed him to the dogs! Two birds with one stone I believe they say." the giggling had turned into a flat out laugh now.

A wave of fear ran over Reno's body and his finger itched at the trigger. "What's to stop me from killing you right now?!"

"My boy, you think a man of science wouldn't use his own experiments to further himself? You could try, I suppose, it would be interesting to find out what-" Hojo's voice was cut off as a bullet slammed into his chest, another one hit his ankle, and, as the doctor fell, a final one blew a hole in his skull.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to do that for." Reno spat. He walked to the door and emptied the rest of the clip into the dead body before he stepped over it. He wasn't thinking at this point, his body was on autopilot and all he knew was that he needed to warn Rude and Tseng.

He smacked the call button when he reached the elevator and that's when he felt it, something grabbed his leg and pulled him off his feet. Gravity took its effect and he slammed into the floor with a dull thud.

"Never turn your back on your enemy, Turk!!" Hojo's voice hissed with hatred and the tentacle that had replaced the madman's right arm began to retract, dragging the Turk toward him, the Doctors other arm had mutated into something resembling a claw like pincer. "I'll rip you limb from limb!"

Reno panicked for a moment, his hands fumbled at his belt as he was pulled closer... There! Got it.

He was less than a foot away now, suspended effortlessly in the air by Hojo's unsightly appendage.

"Any last words, Turk?" The Doctor asked with a smile, spitting the word 'Turk' like a curse as his other arm rose up, getting ready to snap the redhead in half.

"Smile." Reno said simply, his eyes were covered by the goggles he always wore on his forehead, as a bright flash of light shone through the room.

Hojo screamed in pain as he was blinded. He dropped the Turk and covered his eyes.

Reno seized the moment, gripping his EMR as hard as he could and sending it with a masterful swing into Hojo. Within a moment the doctor was on the floor again, crying out in pain as bolts of electricity ran through his body and Reno was running, he threw himself into the now open elevator and hit the first floor button.

The doors shut silently and the loud banging of a tentacle outside reminded the Turk to how close it had been.

Reno was thankful for once that the elevator moved as quickly as it did and he was halfway to the ground floor before he realized how tight he was holding his electro-mag-rod, he released his grip slightly and pulled out his PHS. He needed to warn the other Turks...

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Author's Note's: And another one bites the dust as they say, hope you guys are enjoying it so far, and the Zombies... Next chapter, promise.

Next chapter will hopefully be Friday, or possibly Monday, one of the two.

Adios till then and feel free to let me know what you think so far.


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